>> building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions, this is abc 7 news. >> high there i am kristen, your watching getting answers live on abc seven, we ask experts every day at 3:00 to get your answers in real-time. we are getting ready for the biggest professional development country -- conferences in the country for women. it will be happening in one ntthea for yo the ceo from pb wc will be joining us live. is the post omicron calm over? cases are up sharply, people are waiting to get a second booster or wondering how long protection actually lasts. joining us to discuss this in

person, right next to me here, special correspondent dr. patel. i will start to wonder if you started to ask -- still exist in the flesh. dr. patel: i have a hologram, but this feels like a treat, to be back in person i feel confident doing it. kristen: glad to have you back, we will get to the conversation if we can continue do this, where things are trending and to make sure we can continue to do this to make sure we get back to normal. now i know you oyster to sigh with two truths -- you started sat with two truths and ally. a lie. dr. patel: these are based on current headlines. here is where we are to go. a, it is named as such because it becomes after the other letters or b, nancy pelosi

tested positive for sars-cov-2, she is vaccinated and boosted and is currently asymptomatic. they are fixing a glitch in the aca that has a glitch -- the keys people. >> i think i can rule outb. that is true, she is asymptomatic. a is possible, but i actually think c is a lie. more people are saying a is the lie. folks, i will side with you because i was torn between a andc. that is the light, the big scary

one that we are worried about, maybe it is something else. dr. patel: a is actually true. kristen: viewers, can have a word with you? erica, randy, robert, daniel? i'm throwing you under the bus. dr. patel: it is actually reassuring because you think that recombinant viruses happen. we have already had four they did not know about, because they did not make a ruckus. this is the fifth, hopefully will not do anything, early data suggest it might be more transmissible. b is true that speaks of the power of vaccines, nancy pelosi is 82-year-old -- see, -- c known as the family glitch. of the 5 million people it will help, the majority is kids. kristen: that is great.

thank you for expending that. folks, you know i love you whether you get the right answer or not. let's talk about what is going on, because cases are going back up. san francisco highs case count out of all the counties in california right now. you talk about nancy pelosi our hearts -- house speaker who was right next to president biden fixing the family glitch, not the pharmacy glitch. she is negatives -- he is negative so far, but we are seeing more cases in big citiesd should we be? dr. patel: what is going on as we have a more transmissible variant. the country. there is a potential that you take into account that people are going back to their normal lives, people that may not of had an infection before. people that were more protected and guarded and also more vaccinated.

i do not think the positive test alone is reason to be concerned. we are seeing a rise in cases in about half the country according to reporting yesterday. we are not seeing a correlation in the rise of hospitalizations and icus. is very important are never that is not the only metric. we do not want to see people getting metric -- sick, getting other sick, missing school and work and getting long covid. about 70% of cases are omicron ba2. i think we might avoid a very scary surge right now especially with the warmer months. kristen: this uptick, do you think it will come back down again real quickly or do you think will be a steady rise for a while? dr. patel: i think we will see a plateau in late spring, early summer. i mentioned we have warm weather and we have a lot more vaccines and natural immunity out there.

as it spreads more people getting into it. one thing i want to bring up regarding what happened in the white house. this is all speculation, but there are a lot of people out there who take home tests are not getting tested at all and we are not capturing those numbers. we talk about that white house black tie event where everyone tested positive, imagine if we were testing every single group that was getting together, fully vaccinated and asymptomatic, would see these cases come out. the cases -- the question is do we need to chase the case numbers or follow hospitalization? kristen: the answer that, obviously how we behave would be different if we agree to society at where about cases as long as people go to hospital. you see the people in philadelphia with the uptick recommending indoor masking again. those are not things you need to do if you agree collectively not to worry about cases. dr. patel: the problem is we do

not yet know if this will be the current trend, we know the hospitalization lags rising cases. this is what a lot of the debate was at the fda booster meeting. they are -- are we ok with letting case numbers rise as long as hospitalizations do not? the fda independent advisory committee needs again in the summer to discuss the fall booster plan. they will take into account. . saying we saw a rising cases but not hot rising -- not risinhosp. -- hospitalizations. kristen: we have philly recommending indoor masking, we do have that recommendation yet, they could. come if we go a little higher. . this is the bay area after all, as individuals what should we do? dr. patel: as we move forward and we get to this new era, it will get to where you take your

individual risk into account. we do not think every 50 states will follow the federal rule, will not happen. you say yourself, what is my age? was my health risk? are you vaccinated and boosted? we do not have a high amount of people boosted in this country. kids five to 11, 20% of them are vaccinated. that is step one. that conversation needs to happen. instead of talking about the booster, we need to talk about the primary series. kristen: if there was more clarity about long covid, including brain shrinkage is of the happens and even mild cases, that will help people assess if they want to risk eating a mild case -- getting a mild case. dr. patel: no one wants to get covid if they know about the effects of long covid. if you summarize all the data, 30% of people that tested

positive are experiencing some form of mild covid. scientist have put together 200 different symptoms affecting every organ system. long covid is not something want to have. we suspect that if you have a vaccination you are less likely to have long covid. if someone says they're not worried about covid because hospitalizations and icus, those numbers are not going up, you cannot discount long covid. at the has come down to the individual, vaccination status, what is a look like in your community, what is vaccination status and community transmission you are? if you're worried about -- i am worried about the parts of the country where people are not vaccinated and do not have natural immunity. >> otherwise you not be sitting next to me. we get take a short break where we will answer your viewer questions, dr. patel answer your questions. when we get back we should get

into the booster, the second booster, did it now or wait for it?

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patel the studio now, we were chatting during the break about some of the viewer questions. real quickly to catch up, when the viewers asked, her daughter had a medical condition, should she get the second booster? she is 13 years old,. >> it depends on your medical condition, if it labels you as immunocompromised you can chat with your health professional about getting a second booster. it is different if you're above 50. kristen: the fda has said ok to

the second booster, fourth shop for people 50 and up, how would you assess that? a lot of people in the 50's group, can get it, thinking how long does it last? we have heard that the efficacy. it is not that long. omicron can be two months and it starts to die. should i wait, so if i summer trip? how should people decide? dr. patel: i think that question game they were just playing our what people should do if you are between 50 and six to five years old and relatively healthy -- 65 years old and relatively healthy. they can assess questions and see should i get it right now or wait a little bit. if you're above 65 years old, the data suggest this little boost might actually help. if you have underlying medical conditions above 50 the data is also supporting you there as well. we talk about waning immunity we

are talking about antibody level. we do not have clear evidence teaches just that llmmit -- which can protect you even if you don't keep getting the vaccine. dr. patel: we expect the antibodies to fall anyway. we have an overabundance of caution. kristen: you wanted to do something new, here we go we have some tweets that are catching your attention and you can comment on and look at. dr. patel: they represent important topics. kristen: i just received my second moderna rooster vaccine and i feel good. i am still going -- booster vaccine and i feel good. dr. patel: i love, that mr. t, who is 62 years old, is in character when he wrote this tweet. he is tweeting as mr. t. yet to be like, fool!

he took an individual decision, i do not know the thing about his medical history. he said this is why did, igood,e up spread a positive message. kristen: another tweet this, this one from zach rubin. omicron xe is not like a newer cheaper iphone. it is possibly 10% more transmissible and white kids under five need a vaccine available asap. what you think of this? dr. patel: we do not know what omicron xe will do in the future. it could be way more trances -- transmissible. we may see a surge. parents say even if it is 30%, 40% efficacious, -- hopefully

we'll see the data from a dharna and pfizer and kids get an option soon. fingers crossed. kristen: i do not know why parents would not choose to opt for 30%, 40% above the baseline. is there a downside? dr. patel: there are no downsides, there are some parents out there that say we do not need it, we do not need to worry about it, is 30%, is a tough conversation a lot of my colleagues have based. -- faced. kristen: dr. blackstock saying many people with long covid have relied on remote work to stay employed. precautions are rolling back and many are insisting that employees return to the office. this is true, companies are bringing people back, sometimes you have a choice and sometimes you do not. dr. patel: this tweet represents a symptom of a much larger problem we face right now. we talk about the new normal,

everyone has a different normal. the 9 million people who were immunocompromised or the undisclosed number of people have long covid. they need to be taken into account as we remove restrictions and go back to the lies we had in 2019. i hope it with decision-makers out there. kristen: speaking of companies ringing employees back, we brought up earlier philadelphia seeing a spike, our sister station has some employees working from home to make sure that everyone does not get sick at once so they would have people to do the newscast so to speak. do you expect a return to the on a mass basis? dr. patel: i think it will depend. if we do have a rise in cases we will get back to where we went to before with some kind of testing schedule with people needed to test negative. we have removed a lot of the vaccine mandates, which they happen, in my return.

kristen: mask requirement still in effect for planes, trains, lasting another 10 days at which it can be extended or dropped. what do you think? dr. patel: i am keeping a mascot in the airplane for the indefinite future. it is gross, it is filtered, but when he sit next to someone who is copping you do not know what they have. -- koffing you do not know what they have. i'm to keep that mask on. kristen: did you hear about the fines recommended from the faa today on unruly pastors? -- passengers? it is a really big fine, but i think it speaks to the mental state of it all. dr. patel: you said before i could, the amount of assaults

that happened on people in the public sector is awful. this did not happen in the past. you are hitting and biting someone on an airplane. come on, i'm surprised more charges were not pressed. kristen: speaking of the mental health impact, how are we in terms of being able to support people? do we have the professional staff? your about staffing shortages everywhere. dr. patel: i cannot say yes we haven't. it looks like we have a -- habit -- have it. it looks like we have a lot of scaling up to do. i cannot even tell you the amount of horrific mental illness i've seen of the last two years. people waiting up to six months to a year to see a psychiatrist in the bay area. unfortunately we are past awareness. there is awareness, it is everywhere. we need better intervention and access to treatment. there is more options for virtual and online therapy and needs be a central focus from here on out.

ms. knight transient problem it was here before, -- it is not a transient problem. kristen: is great seeing you. dr. patel: i am happy to be here. kristen: is good for you to see yourself as well, they do so much. coming up next, achieving her aspirations and claiming your seat at the table, the conferences back and will be talking to the ceo of

kristen: the professional businesswomen of california annual conference will be here before you know it. abc 7 is a proud media sponsor of the two-day event that provides inspiration to women at all levels to achieve their goals. joining us like to talk about it is the ceo, nicole. great to see you. >> high kristen, so much -- is

so great to see you. so great to see you. kristen: is coming up soon, may 10 to 11th, can you still buy tickets just so people know. >> of course, you can still buy tickets, prices will increase on monday, to be your tickets now, we have a phenomenal event, we have an incredible line of speakers, go to pbwoc.org divider tickets there. kristen: who are the speakers? nicole: we have an incredible lineup this year. we are featuring mindy kaylee, actress, creator, writer, wears many hats, mother. another incredible creator as well, the author of pay up, the founder of girls who code. we have the cofounder of linked

in. founder of masters of scale, the co-ceo and chairman of the board of starbucks. a paralympians, and amazed -- an amazing leader, cecelia was the first latina to head president obama's white house domestic policy council. i would be remiss if i did not mention our indomitable founder, u.s. congresswoman jackie spear who will be starting off the conference with may 10 -- on may 10 with some remarks. i cannot explain how excited a am about all these incredible speakers that we have this year. we continue to add more. i encourage all of your viewers to continue to monitor our website or more speaker announcements from the coming weeks. kristen: that is a who's who of speakers. past years i've had the pleasure

of seeing a person hillary clinton, jane fonda and -- lily tomlin. i always walk away with a feeling that there is a real sisterhood there. women that can help you lift you up, be your mentors, ticket speaks to a theme this year of rise, tells about why he chose rise and what that means. nicole: rise has both a really strong individual and team meaning. there is so much to say about this year's theme. is rising personally to achieve your aspirations. to take your seat at the table, to get that assignment or promotion. likewise we need about rise from a team standpoint it is a collective message of lifting other people up. helping to make sure that those unheard or underrepresented voices are heard. there is so much to say about rise and i think it really

speaks to the moment of all of us together at pbwc to want to help and support the community as we transition into this new normal and hopefully an optimistic time. kristen: speaking of rise, this is a big week, we saw the first black woman to be confirmed as a supreme court justice, ketanji brown jackson, that has an impact on imminent in business? nicole: no doubt, we are all cheering at pbwc at this news. when i see images of the soon to take the bench justice jackson, you cannot help but the overcome with emotion when you see her experiencing this moment, having been acknowledged for her incredible career, accomplishments and what a tremendously qualified,

overqualified person to step into that role. we cannot be more proud of this moment for our country. kristen: it all sounds so amazing, the conference, for those that cannot watch on may 10 or 11th, is there another option? can they check it out later? nicole: yes, it is one of these silver linings of the pandemic. like many organizations pbwc has embraced technology and a new way. out of this time came our ability to reach folks in countries all over. kristen: we will have to take this conversation over onto facebook live, deftly take

joining us on this interactive show, get -- tonight, several developing stories as we come on the air. russia's deadliest single attack on civilians yet since the start of this war. at least 50 people killed. among them, mothers and children, all waiting to flee. kill in the a missile strike at a crowded train station, and tonight the kremlin now acknowledging the toll on its own military, reporting, quote, significant losses in ukraine. but are they acknowledging the real number? and are russian families being told that their loved ones have been kill in ted in putin's war? back here at home at the white house, history made. judge ketanji brown jackson's powerful and emotional speech. what he said as she now becomes the first black woman to serve on the supreme court. mary bruce live at the wte